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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23105533">tapes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/generationaldivide/pseuds/worthington'>worthington (generationaldivide)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Vampire Diaries (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ASPD, F/M, Family, Gemini Coven - Freeform, POV, Psychopathology &amp; Sociopathy, Songfic, Twenty One Pilots Reference, Witches, lots of swearing because feelings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:34:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,997</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23105533</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/generationaldivide/pseuds/worthington</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>imagine somebody discovers the Parker household movies</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Malachai "Kai" Parker/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. TAPES ONE AND TWO</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>can i please please not use all those fucking html text things they PISS ME OFF<br/>ps hetero pairing is not that important, it will not come up until after some time, and will not last.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h4></h4>
<p>TAPE ONE</p>

<p>Nobody knew why she decided to name him like that; Joshua did not catch the obvious tongue-in-cheek connection between his name and his son’s. At the very moment his first child was born, he was too preoccupied with the strongest feeling of dread that just struck him like a hammer on the head. It would all be laughs and fun if he weren’t a witch and didn’t have to take the signs seriously. On the film, a bit grainy but with brilliant lightning, on that day, on the tenth of May, you can see his face. A normal generic person will say, well mister, that’s a bit of a downer of a face you got there, for such an important moment. Look here, your firstborn, big and healthy, and ridiculously handsome for a baby, just came out. And if mama is still in pain, because there’s a second child, kicking and pushing, trying to tear her apart, and she’s understandably smiling through a lot of pain... you got no reason to frown like that. Joshua can be seen on that tape, flabbergasted with sudden sting of pain, like an invisible icy dagger is poking his lung. What a laugh it would be if the father died at the very moment of Malachai’s birth! You can hear Martha utter breathlessly, Malachai, caressing his little head full of pitch-black hair, her hand glistening and pale, like he just consumed all the power from her. </p><p>Giving birth to him was such extraordinarily painful that Martha nearly died, but it made her so much stronger for the future kids to come. Much later she would reminisce to Malachai himself that Josette, his sister, popped out just like a pea, and she barely felt Joey and Ashley; Samantha and Tyler came out with a little bit of difficulty, but the last ones, Liv and Luke, they were such angels. </p><p>None of them - and you can check the tapes - had those wonderful, amazing black eyes and that quiet, serious attitude as their very oldest brother when they were born. You also won’t find in any of them the moment when she gives her witch children their names. </p><p>He was a beautiful baby, and the sun that was shining that day through the window flooded the room, shining on his new hair, making it go iridescent like black pearl, giving weird rainbow shadows on the walls. Malachai did not utter a cry or a whine the first ten minutes after he was born; not a grumble, not a soft baby boo moo. You may try to check your VHS player and fiddle with the remote, but in fact you can hear all the sounds in the room. Martha panting, and Joshua walking to and fro; Aileen, who served as midwife, cooing over the newborn, and her help, Mary and Brie, talking very quietly. The clatter of instruments and chanting of spells, you can almost hear the magic oozing and drifting with characteristic low buzz. You can even hear that the birds abruptly shut up when Malachai comes out. There’s a pause in the world, for Joshua to catch his breath and moan a little with uneven grimacing. There’s probably black spots in his eyes as he watches his son outstretch his little hands towards him, tiny fingers spread out. It’s always a shocker when you get to see your own death.</p><p>_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><h4></h4>
<p>TAPE TWO</p>

<p>Here we have Malachai getting his nickname. Mama is tired of uttering the full name every time, it’s full three syllables, and for some reason, every time it leaves her lips, it sounds like a curse! But look at this baby, ink and milk, his two-year-old brain radiating through the concentrated glance he’s piercing his green-purple slinky with. One would think in a powerful, respectable family of witches that controls the whole coven they would have the toys for their children in better color palettes. You would think the whole coven would visit every goddamn day and bring something to those children, those beautiful twins who reassure them all of their bright future. And they do, but Malachai barely ever appreciates all the presents; out of all toys that he loves the most, only two stand out. It’s this god awful slinky in green and purple, and a hexagone shaped polished wood figure with blunt spikes, that he likes to twist in his fingers and bite with his… uh, gums? When do witch children start to grow teeth?</p><p>There’s a celebration in their big house. On the tape you can see their huge living room, bright golden lights floating around, and lots of people’s heads. Some are a bit dark because cameras back then in 70s were utter heavy shit. There’s blanks and white spots burnt through, that will appear right on your screen, like something’s eating video. Malachai is sitting on the floor in the corridor, and his twin sister, Jo, a little girl with very pretty cheeks and very little fingers, crawls around him, trying to snuggle against him as he stares at the toy.<br/>
“Are you trying to move it, Kai?” mama Parker asks. We can’t see her, she’s behind that enormous camera. Malachai doesn’t look up, but Jo does. She already knows how to smile and recognizes mother, of course, even when she has that big thing on her shoulder. Someone’s feet. The beak night behind the windows. Why aren’t children asleep if it’s so late?</p><p>They’re all sitting at the table, Kai is held by his mother, and Jo – by her father. There are so many people around them! Witches and warlocks look curious, all holding hands, chanting. Their hair is long, curly and dark, there’s barely any blond people there. </p><p>“It’s twenty years until the merge”, someone says, and there’s giggling. Kai is already slumbering, his pouty face against his mother’s soft breast, mouth half opened. We can see people’s admiring faces and the way they look at those children. There’s quiet speeches and barely audible clanging of the glasses; Martha is a beautiful woman. She has that cunning flickering about her, her triangle face clean and smooth. Joshua looks preoccupied. You will barely see that asshole happy in all the Parker tapes that you find. Being a coven leader is not an easy thing to do. His big dog eyes look very cool with all the floating lights though, like there’s corridors of flames inside of him. Say what you want about Joshua Parker, but he does look like a powerful witcher, a lion to his pride. He’s sitting with his back straight, and holding his daughter like she’s a princess, whispering little somethings into her ears. He nods when somebody mentions the merge, and though it’s in twenty years, his eyes shift uneasily to his son. You have to really open up your peepers to catch that, though, it’s really quick. There’s a whole bunch of fun in how a grown man is afraid of his two-year-old buddy boy who’s also drooling all over his wife’s dark purple dress. Parkers do have a thing about that color. They have purple curtains, and the wallpaper in their kitchen is purple – a terrible choice, and we will check the tapes from the future to see if they make any changes. </p><p>People celebrate Thanksgiving all together in the Gemini coven and talk about the coven, and praise the coven father. To them, they’re all one big family. Other children, sitting around the table, look bleak because they’re too short and the light isn’t shed on their faces. Some little heads yawn and tug on their parents’ sleeves. The whole thing looks more like a ceremony rather than a family celebration. There’s normal amount of holiday cheer, but it’s too sacred, too solemn. Behold! The future maybe leader of the coven is dozing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. TAPES THREE AND FOUR</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>TAPE THREE</p><p> </p><p>It’s almost summer, and there’s a dog running in the lawn near the house. We can walk outside following the camera as it carries us like a tide. The sun is brilliant, so warm and yellow, a caged orb in the eye of the camera. These tapes are great. They show us the Parker house, big and resembling a colonial cake. There’s forest behind, so that you can bring the children you don’t like in the depths of it and leave them to die. The witches from here will definitely go for a walk in the said forest and find them. <br/>The house has no less than three floors and a huge porch, white pillars and all. Awesome dwelling. There’s three pyramid-like baby roofs on the main roof, and windows, windows everywhere. The house is very lit, and the area is crowdless which means it’s a good place to raise children.</p><p>The dog’s name is Cle-men-tine; that’s how Joshua always calls it. When he calls for the dog, he always says her full name, just like he never shortens Malachai’s great name. What’s in the name, by the way? Has he cracked the mystery of it yet? Why does it now scare Martha so much? There’s that Slavic root which uses another vowel, an O instead of an A, which means <em>‘an evil force insatiable for human sacrifices’</em>, but that’s got nothing to do with little Malachai and his name. His name means <em>‘god’s messenger’</em>, and, lord knows, the boy has things to say.</p><p>Although we can’t see him yet, we can hear Kai blabbing and chanting somewhere. The camera is looking for him. There he is!<br/>“Kai!” someone screams.<br/>Kai is sitting on top of his sister, who’s silent and obedient, and presses her little head into the grass.<br/>“We’re playing horsie”, god’s gift – sorry, messenger replies and doesn’t let go of her dark hair until there’s a hand shoving out of nowhere that grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him up.<br/>Well, that’s our Malachai, he’s four years old, and he’s wearing purple pants and a black little t-shirt with no patterns. His wicked little mouth is crooked in a smile, and his hair is not pitch-black anymore, although it’s pretty dark. His eyes are actually either dark-grey or dark-blue now; he looks straight into the camera and keeps smiling as the father tells him off. His laughter is the best.</p><p>Then Joshua starts to beg him to do some magic.<br/>“Come on, Malachai, do a trick”, he says, and Kai just shakes his head vehemently, getting grumpy all of a sudden.<br/>“No”.<br/>“Why not?”<br/>“I get pain in my head when I try to do what Jo does”.<br/>“But you know you’re a magical boy, Malachai, don’t you?” Joshua asks, and his voice is full of fatherly admiration. As long as we don’t see his face we’re as good as sure he has zero problems with his son.<br/>“I don’t wanna be the magic, let Jo be witch. I don’t wanna be the magic”.<br/>“You’re not the magic. You have magic inside of you”, Joshua explains. Josette finally gets up from the ground and sits, smiling widely at her brother.<br/>“Let me be the rider now!” she screams, reaching for Kai. She loves her big brother so much. He came out about three or four minutes earlier, but he already knows he’s the big brother, because mama Parker teaches him to take care of his sister. So, he keeps reminding her. <br/>“No, I’m older”, he says. Children have phases and special phrases they repeat like mantra during different ages. And this is his four years mantra: I’m older. Let Jo knock his toys off the table, but he’s older, so she always has to pick them all up. His toys end up on the top of the wardrobe and outside the window sill, in the basement behind the old cooker and inside the bloody pipes. Parents can’t stop crying with happiness – give them a minute and they’ll start tearing their hair out.</p><p>Camera shifts to Jo. We can hear Clementine bark somewhere out of the picture. <br/>“Jo, do something for daddy”, Joshua asks. There’s a bright piece of dress coming to them from the porch. It’s Martha. She’s wearing a pretty orange and red sundress and her hair is loose. Seeing the camera, she waves her hand, but she’s out of focus. There’s only half of Malachai, he’s sitting on the grass with his face turned to Jo. She starts doing waves with her hands, standing on the tip-toes, smiling. She thinks she’s doing magic, and Joshua is cheering for her. Nobody knows how important this moment is, when, at the age of four, a child starts spitting magic like squid spits ink. Imagine having a set of twins in the coven, and being the present leader of it, and finding these kids don’t have magic. If that kind of crap happened, Joshua would shoot himself in the face from a normal people’s gun. The amount of stress they are going through with Martha, because their male kid only has headaches instead of levitating spoons at the dinner table, is impossible to express through the family tapes. They crack their heads and bite their nails, looking deep into him, but all they see is his stubborn gaze back. That’s fine though, the boy’s headstrong, just like his father. He will come round eventually and stop with these nos. Josette does magic, or rather, bleeds it like a normal witchy baby. Sometimes she can’t sleep and keeps Kai up with her cries and moaning, because there’s so much of healthy energy in her it feels like a fever.   </p><p>“What do you have on your face, honey?” Martha asks as she approaches them. Malachai’s sitting on the ground and watching his mother walk past him. She bows and caresses the shreds of grass away from her face, and Kai acts out immediately.<br/>“I will magic you!” he yells. He jumps out and grabs his sister with both hands, lifting her in the air. Jo shrieks. Kai tries to lift her as high as he can and throws her back on the ground. Martha rushes to catch her daughter, and the hand from the camera grabs Kai again.<br/>“What are you doing, Malachai?” Joshua asks strictly. He shakes his son to make him look up. There’s this Malachai glance in return, to which they got used to already; a bit sullen, his chin sticking to his chest, the eyelids lowered. At the moments like this you expect magic to flow from him and knock you from your feet although he’s just a little boy in purple pants. But nothing happens, although he’s trying.      </p><p> </p><p>TAPE FOUR</p><p> </p><p>It’s twins’ birthday. Have they changed the wallpaper yet? Who knows, we’re in the living room. Everybody’s very excited. They turn five which means a very important year for the coven… but to them, this world is all important and unbelievably worth exploring. Kids this little don’t understand responsibility or duty yet, all they know is each other, food, mother’s voice, and funny moving pictures on the screen. There are many people in the room, again, all basking them in attention. So many pairs of expecting eyes turned to them, observing their every move like vultures, feeding on their confusion, and consuming the energy from their puffy pink and dark blue ribbons and dresses, questioning, discussing, pondering. Kai has his little arms around his sister, pressing quick fake kisses on her face just like mama and papa do. Josette is busy trying to pull the tablecloth from under all the dishes. It’s evening, and the kids finally sit still: everybody’s happy that hyperactive Malachai found solace in examining how strong Josette’s bones are. It’s like they know. It’s like they know about the merge, and they look at each other and consider which one of them will go down. But of course not, in reality they were probably thinking, why does it smell so funny and why is Aunt Aileen crying non-stop? Her facial features are twisted, that indicates she’s sad. Why is everybody else laughing then? However… you know what, I’m not sure they were even thinking that. I have very little knowledge of what the kids think about because I myself was never one.</p><p>Anyway, then we can see a big gap, and the picture changes. It’s present time – the best time of the day! Kai’s on his father’s, the coven leader, lap, Jo is sitting with her mum. All the chatter, laughter, glass sounds, and the big and small boxes float above the table. Parents unwrap the presents and announce: a toy! A dress! Josette gets about four or five dresses and Kai gets none. But he does get a pair of silk pants, a book of spells – his first – and even a dead bird. A DEAD BIRD! That’s one of the best presents you can get being a witch. You take the beak and use it in making potions… the feathers go on dream catchers, eyes – for blinding spells, and legs can be edible…</p><p>Okay, I’m pulling your leg, no witch really needs a dead bird, even a raven – it’s gross. Kaylo Perkins is just old and insane. He’s a slave of old religion and a big Satan fan. Dead bird goes into the bin right after the dinner, and Malachai screams properly about it, for like twenty minutes, because he enjoyed it. </p><p>They both get golden chains with the symbol of Gemini coven, and sets of toys. Josette gets her books on how to be a good girl (spoiler alert: she’ll never be). Malachai gets a mirror in silver frame from his mother – she talks to dead people through it. And a ring from his father that Joshua takes off his finger right then, and puts it on the chain. Everybody cheers. The favoritism in this family is so obvious you can write your messages in the sky. </p><p>“Say thank you!” Martha smiles to her children. Kai and Jo say ‘tha-ank you’ in unison and everybody goes ahh.</p>
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